Pics: Accidents in India

This is a discussion on Pics: Accidents in India within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Originally Posted by Rohit_Quad
... Capital punishment should be imposed to such people.
Like everyone, I guess, there are times ...

Like everyone, I guess, there are times when I feel someone should be strung up or worse. But no, I really feel it should be abolished. On the other hand, I read that Life imprisonment for some cases of causing death by driving might become a reality in UK. I'm fine with that.

A wide road, warning lights turned on, and as close to the parking lane as possible, yet a car brushed past mine, causing damage to the bumper and alloy.
The driver of the media van was on the phone and the passenger had the audacity to shout at me. Both didn't show the basic courtesy to stop and enquire; maybe they took my action of completing the parking manoeuvre before stepping down to look at the damage in the wrong way.

A wide road, warning lights turned on, and as close to the parking lane as possible, yet a car brushed past mine, causing damage to the bumper and alloy.
The driver of the media van was on the phone and the passenger had the audacity to shout at me. Both didn't show the basic courtesy to stop and enquire; maybe they took my action of completing the parking manoeuvre before stepping down to look at the damage in the wrong way.

This has happened to me as well few years back but that was a biker on Sahakarnagar main road. Luckily he didn't brush my car but braked in time and even shouted at me despite of Hazards and Indicators on to warn that I was reversing.

I believe the main reason for this brush was because your vehicle which is moving in straight direction with a defined width that other motorists have already assessed are greeted by a change in path when you turn the steering to move inside the parking line. This action results in the car's front move out of this defined width by at least 1 foot.

Again, it also depends on how Short or long the nose of your car is along with the turning radius. Based on these 2, the amount of protrusion out of the defined width gets altered.

No wonder the Media vehicle scrapped exactly on the edge of your Lancer's bumper due to this.

Needless to say, whether you have kept your Hazard Lights ON or Reverse lights working, the fellow motorists simply do not care to pay attention on road

A wide road, warning lights turned on, and as close to the parking lane as possible, yet a car brushed past mine, causing damage to the bumper and alloy.

Sorry Friend! I think you were wrong on that occasion. You were near the parking lane, warning lights were ON, all that is fine, but what about the way you took reverse!

While taking reverse you are away from your path of flow (the front portion of your vehicle) into the traffic at least by 1 to 2 feet. This would seriously cause hinder to the vehicles coming from back. Thank god it was a 4 wheeler, imagine if it was 2 wheeler, he would have got thrown into the oncoming traffic. And more over, you were looking for parking space through out and as soon as you see a spot, you simple get into parking mode without giving a damn care for the vehicle coming from behind

Quote:

A 26-year-old civil engineer was killed instantly when a four-wheeler ran him over in a freak accident. Jagadish was on his way to the workplace when a mini goods vehicle plying ahead had its rear door open suddenly.

A wide road, warning lights turned on, and as close to the parking lane as possible, yet a car brushed past mine, causing damage to the bumper and alloy.
The driver of the media van was on the phone and the passenger had the audacity to shout at me. Both didn't show the basic courtesy to stop and enquire; maybe they took my action of completing the parking manoeuvre before stepping down to look at the damage in the wrong way.

Sad to see the damage caused to your car by the media van. Wish every one of us could learn some defensive driving lessons, especially within the city limits. However I have to say (with the risk of sounding too tough of you), the van driver was not at fault 100%.

As you mentioned you had put on the hazard lights long back and made clear your intention that you are going to slow down to slot in one of the open spaces for parking. Since you could not do it in one go, you had to put it in reverse. You assumed here that no one is coming from behind and steered the car to right to get you some space for putting in reverse. This maneuver would have caught the van driver by surprise who himself might be looking for a parking spot. As you mentioned he was on phone, he would not have been to swerve his car towards right at the last moment to prevent it from brushing you.

Ideally when you steered to left in the parking space, you should have paused for a moment, looked in your right side ORVM for any vehicles coming from behind, took out your right hand to show your intention of turning right and then turned to the right safely. Since you tried to get into the parking slot in one go, that might have confused the van driver coming from behind resulting in this situation.

I have always admired the Mumbai cab drivers for one practice they follow. Whenever a passenger waives them a hand or the cab wants to stop, the driver raises his hand high-up pointing towards the sky, making his intention clear to all the tail-getters that he wants to stop. That way the traffic at rear becomes alert and pull away from the cab.

Quote:

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Again, it also depends on how Short or long the nose of your car is along with the turning radius. Based on these 2, the amount of protrusion out of the defined width gets altered.

No wonder the Media vehicle scrapped exactly on the edge of your Lancer's bumper due to this

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneRidder

While taking reverse you are away from your path of flow (the front portion of your vehicle) into the traffic at least by 1 to 2 feet.

Both of you are spot on, my dear friends and I am in complete agreement with you. Some patience and an eye on the traffic coming from behind could have easily prevented this freak accident.

A wide road, warning lights turned on, and as close to the parking lane as possible, yet a car brushed past mine, causing damage to the bumper and alloy.
...

Quote:

Originally Posted by paragsachania

...
I believe the main reason for this brush was because your vehicle which is moving in straight direction with a defined width that other motorists have already assessed are greeted by a change in path when you turn the steering to move inside the parking line. This action results in the car's front move out of this defined width by at least 1 foot.
...

In this case, I would have to say that you really ought to have been a little more careful while doing the parallel parking. As highlighted by @paragsachania, the front of the car "swings out", which is something you need to look out for while parking.

Why do I say this? The only time I failed a driving test, my one major fault was that I did not take sufficient care to give way to another car continuing straight on the road. It was many many years ago, but that "FAIL" stamp on the paperwork still hurts like hell!

Er.. I thought the pause before the commencement of the reversing manoeuvre and the frantic waving of the passenger's hand in the other car were sufficient indicators. Anyway, let me clarify further-

1) I did spot the surroundings before starting to reverse. The traffic was sparse and the media van was definitely not behind me, it was in the right-most lane.
2) notice the double parked autos etc. The lane I was reversing in didn't exactly allow easy traffic flow.
3) the driver of the other car was too distracted and took a very sharp swerve to the left, as indicated by the waving of the hand. My guess, he was looking for some location or person and was in contact over the phone.

If you still feel I could've avoided a left-swerving car, while backing up, I honestly fail to see how. Even if I had stopped, he would've still hit me, no?

Don't know what's wrong here but I am unable to make out who exactly is at fault. Or maybe all the parties are at fault.
1) An over speeding car
2) Impatient bikers (Probability)
3) The cop

Before gifting me with brickbats, it is important to read what I my experience has been, I am sure many do notice the same, everyday. I have myself hit a motorcyclist at the Rajnagar Extension of NCR. I crossed the signal at final moment and he started moving even before the cop signaled his side to move at his end. I was at around 60 kph and it was a direct hit on his front wheel from my Innova. Luckily, he didn't face any major injuries and I banged straight ahead into a truck in the opposite direction (turned right to avoid him). So, I agree that it's the Jetta driver who is 100% at fault, but if there is a just law; then the probability of bikers being at fault can't be ignored.

The video clearly shows that the bikers have started moving way before the cars have. Now either the car drivers are all slow or the bikers have started moving at the point of time when the signal is either yellow or red itself for them. Check the video thoroughly, one can easily notice that even before the cars have started moving, the bikers have nearly crossed the road (There is one even behind the tree). there is a good probability that the Jetta was over speeding and the ignorant bikers, observing that the road is empty and signal is about to turn green, started moving. See this happens every day on nearly every signal, it is not uncommon for bikers to jump the signals even when half of a minute is remaining but they see the road empty ahead and no vehicle coming on the open road.

Jetta driver is definitely at fault but equal is the probability of bikers being at it. For a car at high speed, the driver at max can try to change the direction; there is a good chance of the car losing control and then straight ahead running into the mob. Anyhow, if the bikers were jumping the signal, then the car driver is definitely not 'as much' guilty as he is being called. If the car driver jumped the signal, then culpable homicide won't fit the case, it is murder any ways. It's the duty of court of law to decide, all the proofs are available, I am sure that court will reach the right verdict.

For our safety:
It is always better to slow down significantly when there are less than 5 seconds remaining for signal to turn red at your end. Additionally, it is always better to first watch and then move, at the moment when your signal has just turned green. There is a possibility of a car or motorcycle quickly rushing on the way.

The ridiculous thing is that traffic signals, at least if they are timed properly (which leaves out some of the ones in London!) really work to everybody's advantage if obeyed.

By the way: it's another of those "trick" driving questions in UK: what does a green signal mean? Many will answer "go" but it actually means [I forget the exact wording] go if it safe to do so.

The whole thing also only works if amber/yellow lights are timed properly and respected. Amber means stop if you can do so safely. Hah! even in London we sometimes run to get through an amber light: would anyone here ever stop for one? I know junctions where they don't even stop for the first twenty seconds of the the red, despite the crossing road being busy.

I would really welcome traffic signal cameras with automatic large fines. People would eventually learn. Maybe.

Well, rather sad to update that my beloved BlueBolt has to make an appearance here.

I was approaching a signal this morning and there were people waiting to cross the road ( some 100 metres before the signal, so I slowed down well ahead, so that these people can cross the road (signal was red anyway) and just as everyone crossed the road, and as I was approaching the signal at about 10 kmph, someone waiting near the centre divider pushed the yellow metal barricade down. It just happened so quickly that before I realized, the barricade had hit my bumper and my front wheel had climbed on the thin metal barricade too

I am just hoping the car would look fine again, and not much paint would have been removed. As of now, I can only see yellow paint from the barricade on the bumper. And thankfully, the fog lamp is safe! It was just millimeters away from the point of impact.

Well, rather sad to update that my beloved BlueBolt has to make an appearance here.

You should be able to get the dent off your bumper with 'heat treatment'. There are multiple links on YouTube that show this. Many years ago when we had a Maruti 800, an auto nicked the car and the rear bumper had a decent dent. Poured hot water on the bumper - a good bucket full if I remember - and hit the bumper from inside. It popped right back to its original form